Women Want Ice Cream, Men Want Cars: Here’s Proof

To fuel your love of cars,

Are your co-workers still grumpy about the recent time change? Why not perk up the office by starting a discussion about what men and women “really” want? According to new marketing research from Netbase, women consistently crave ice cream, while men fantasize most about cars.

Yeah, that’ll get the cubicle buzzing.

To reach its findings, Netbase scanned a year’s worth of data from social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, tracking sentiment on 27 billion conversations.

When all the silicon dust had settled, researchers found that women talked most often about ice cream. At the top of their wish list: frozen treats from Dairy Queen, though the more geographically limited Blue Bell was the most beloved brand. (The most hated? Walmart.)

Men, on the other hand, talked most often about cars. Curiously, they expressed very little enthusiasm for supercar maker Ferrari, but went completely gaga for Ford. In fact, in mentions of brands, Ford was name-checked a whopping 27% of the time. Honda came in a distant second at 11%, Dodge was third at 10%, followed by a three-way tie between BMW, Chevy, and Toyota at 9%. Someone ought to take Scott Monty out to lunch.

Also interesting is the fact that when men waxed poetic about their dream rides, they tended to focus on the sensory details. They were particularly drawn to a vehicle’s look, followed closely by its smell and its sound system. Even though fuel economy is still the #1 criteria for car shoppers, it looks like men aren’t so keen to tweet about mpgs.

Of course, if your breakroom discussion begins to overheat, you can defuse things by pointing out that men and women actually share their top three desires — they just prioritize them differently. While men go nuts for cars, pizza, and ice cream, women swoon over ice cream, cars, and pizza. Vive la difference!